A foreign realm
A guest asked for a oneshot of…a read and see story.
The pair hit the ground with a smack. Charming was the first to his feet, although the world was still spinning inside his skull. He helped Snow to her feet, she too was still feeling the effects of their unexpected trip through the portal.
"You ok?" Charming asked her breathlessly. Snow nodded, squinting her eyes until everything came back into focus. They certainly weren't back in the Enchanted Forest again, that much was certain. They were somewhere brand new. Not too far away was a building. It was rather large and splendid looking. Not exactly palace standards, but it was clearly meant to make a statement.
"Where are Hook and Zelena?" Snow asked. She knew they'd come through the portal as well. Charming now noticed there disappearance as well.
"I guess we'll have to find out." He said, entwining his fingers with Snow's. "Let's see if we can find them…or anyone else." Snow nodded, following her husband. Neither could escape the feeling of unease about the place. They were both sure it was more than just being in unfamiliar territory. There was something eerie about this place,
After walking towards the mansion like building for a few minutes. They came across a solitary man, tending to some rose bushes in this giant maze of a garden. He had his back to them both.
"Excuse me?" Snow asked politely. "We were wondering if you might be able to help us?" The man froze midway through snipping a stem. He straightened up and turned to face the couple, a polite smile plastered on his face.
"I'm afraid this is private property." He told them coolly. "I'm quite surprised as to how you seem to have stumbled into my little garden." Charming's grip tightened on Snow's hand. He didn't like this man, not one bit.
"We're sorry if we're causing any trouble. We didn't mean to enter your land, in more ways than one. We just need to find our friends and then we want to get back home as soon as possible. We're parents. We have two children back where we're from and we'd like to get home to them." Charming explained. The man raised an eyebrow.
"Where is this place that you are from called? Perhaps I can arrange transportation for you immediately. I'm sure your friends will find their own way." He suggested.
"Uh…it's a bit out of the way." Charming said delicately. He didn't know if people in this realm knew about magic. "We live in a town called Storybrooke." The man's eyebrow raised a fraction of an inch higher, but aside from that, he gave no further reaction.
"What a curious name." He commented. Snow and Charming smiled politely in return. They were both beginning to wish they'd just snuck past this man and found someone else to help them.
"What's this place called?" Snow asked him. This seemed to interest the man.
"You're in a place you don't know the name of?" He asked her.
"Like we said, we didn't mean to come here. It was an accident." Snow responded. She wasn't going to give any more information than that. The man nodded slowly.
"Well then, you'd both best come along with me. I shall explain where you are whilst we try and locate these friends of yours and try and return you to this…Storybrooke."
"Oh it's quite alright. We can see you're busy here. I'm sure we'll find them ourselves…"
"Nonsense. I insist." The man said, beginning to walk towards the mansion. "Come, follow me." Snow and Charming gave each other hesitant looks. They really didn't like this situation, but they now had little choice but to follow this eerie man into his home.
The man led Snow and Charming into what appeared to be a small party room. In a house this grand, it wasn't surprising to either of them he had a room set aside for hosting guests. What did surprise them was that he took two complete strangers in here rather than into one of the main rooms of the house. Something definitely wasn't right. He went behind a small bar and poured three glasses, one for each of them. He handed Snow and Charming theirs before sitting down opposite them. Snow and Charming smiled politely, sipping at their drinks. They were quite sharp, but not exactly unpleasant.
"So tell me more about this town of yours." The man asked them. Snow and Charming politely obliged, telling the man some of the basics of Storybrooke. Only a couple of minutes later, however, both found themselves becoming intensely drowsy. Charming clicked. He looked down at his glass. The man chuckled.
"Yes, you're quite right. I did slip a little something into your drinks, but it's far too late to do anything about it now. Don't worry, you'll both be fine. You just won't be returning home." He explained darkly. Charming tried to rise out of the chair and attack the man, but he instantly fell to the floor, unconscious. The man looked down his nose at the now unconscious royals. He picked up a bell from the small table beside his chair and rang it. Only a moment later, a man came bustling into the room.
"Take these two to the dungeon." He ordered quietly. "It's the only place befitting the spies of Rumplestiltskin." The other man nodded, quickly beginning to drag Charming off towards the dungeon.
Snow was the first to awake again. She was aware of a cold surface beneath her and a faint scratching sound. Her head was swimming. What had happened? Where was she? As she began to wake up properly, memories began to return. She and Charming had been talking to the mysterious man who had clearly drugged them and brought them down here. Snow's stomach was doing somersaults. How would they ever get home now? What would happen to Emma and Neal? No, they had to get back to them.
"Charming?" Snow asked groggily, scrambling to her hands and knees. She was looking directly across from her. She was clearly in some sort of jail cell. Charming was in one adjacent to her. He was just getting to his own knees as Snow called out. "Charming, we need to get out of here…"
"If you both keep making such a fuss we'll all be stuck in here." Someone hissed. Snow and Charming both jumped and whipped their heads round to the side. The scratching noise Snow had heard was now explained. Hook was trying to pick the lock of Snow's cell with said hook whilst Zelena stood tapping her foot impatiently. "I don't know why you insisted we come rescue the two stupid enough to go talking to strangers in foreign realms. Some of us have a baby to return to." She hissed. Snow and Charming chose to ignore that remark. They were just grateful they'd been found before the mysterious man came back for them. Who knew what he had in store for them?
Charming quickly had Snow's lock picked and then moved onto Charming's. When they were both free, they embraced, and turned to Hook and Zelena.
"Do you know where we are? Or how we get home?" Charming asked them.
"Not yet, mate." Hook admitted. "We're getting there…"
"We'd have probably found that all out by now if it wasn't for you fools. Honestly, it's no wonder my sister calls you the two idiots." Zelena snapped. Hook rolled his eyes. He'd been putting up with Zelena's tantrums since they'd arrived in this strange new world. Hopefully, though, they'd all be leaving it soon.
